1.4 – A Blind Eye

Still searching for the facts about the Gryben debacle, President Romana makes a deal with the devil.

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Styre
on May 8, 2016 at 2:34 AM

GALLIFREY: A BLIND EYE

After three episodes featuring a decidedly uninspiring combination of diplomats arguing with each other on Gallifrey and diplomats arguing with Leela on a series of neighboring planets, Alan Barnes’ “A Blind Eye,” the final story of the first Gallifrey season, takes a sharp turn into a completely different setting. The entire play takes place on a steam train in the 1930s, and while it contains the series’ usual blend of repeated twists and intrigue, the new setting gives it a fresher feeling.

For the most part, it works: the needless complexity of the third episode is absent, and the twists arise naturally from the drama. The revelation of what truly happened to Andred isn’t too surprising, but Leela’s reaction is emotional and affecting. Louise Jameson has rarely been better than this. The play stretches plausibility to again involve Romana directly in the drama, but Arkadian (Hugo Myatt) is roguish and entertaining enough to get away with it. Unfortunately, I don’t think the revelation at the conclusion is particularly interesting: this has been a persistent flaw of the Gallifrey series in my eyes, and I’ll be interested to see how the series changes as it progresses into its second season. Regardless, this is a solid script and a good conclusion to the series, deserving of something like a 7/10.

…except for the parts with India Fisher. I don’t object to the inclusion of Charley’s sister in the script on its face — though I think it’s something of a mistake to make the play turn around a continuity point from “Neverland” — but the way she is written is insulting to the intelligence. Sissy Pollard (Fisher) is an English Fascist, supporter of the Nazi Party, and believer in the virtues of Adolf Hitler. It’s not easy to write a character like this without reducing her to a caricature, and Barnes proves this point, turning her into a one-dimensional cipher good for nothing more than reciting platitudes about racial superiority. Never fear, though — Leela is there to undercut Sissy’s attitudes by… picking a lock! Barnes also takes care to remind us that Hitler was evil — apparently alien races that admire brutal dictators like to collect Nazi uniforms. Oh, and let’s not forget to take undergraduate swipes at current events, by labeling the proponents of a more aggressive Time Lord foreign policy “neo-conservatives.”

Overall, not a bad production.. when it wasn’t irritating the hell out of me.